An Original Soul
by Statik27
Summary: What do you hear when you close your eyes? Is it you or is it someone else? What would you do if everyone's future came down to the choices you make?
1. Default Chapter

An Original Soul  
  
Prologue  
  
At the beginning of the great struggle, the Light and the Dark, were brothers. Born of the same mind and body, but with different intents, they struggled for dominance over the other. The Light fought to secure the connection that bound them, to keep the matter of the universe united, trying to suppress the colossal explosion the threatened to rip the great landscape apart.  
In the end however,the Dark finally ripped itself from the grasp of the Light, taking all its malice and ill-virtue with it and stared across the chasm that formed the between the two. The Light with now a distance at which he could see what his dark twin truly was, gasp at the weight of his blunder. With his departure the Dark Matter had taken all of the truly horrifying virtues, Hate, Depression, Deceit, jealousy, and self-loathing, all of which wrapped themselves around the Dark like a cloak. Light in his own matter found that he still had all virtues that he valued namely compassion, Loyalty and of course Love. So he reach out to his brother begging to reunite, to save all that they had built and planned for.  
  
"Brother" cried the Light. " I cannot complete our task without you. You must rejoin, it is the only way."  
  
"NO" screeched the Dark one in return. " I will not go along with YOUR plan BROTHER." the word brother, dripped off the Dark's forked tongue like poison into the well. "Your Garden, will be my wasteland, a battlefield fraught with the stench of life, born of the blood of our children."  
  
The Light seeing galvanized intent of its sibling mirrored upon its visage sighed, and nodded in accent." So let be, but I will not strike you brother, our feud will not be ours to decide, let the children decide it, it will be their burden. Choose your champion."  
  
" It will not be so easy brother as all that, as you well know." said the Dark. " This struggle will last for all time, until you choose to act on your own against me. But until that time, I choose the Human-child as my champion, as will you."  
  
The Light sighed and nodded again, and watched, as the Dark plunged their garden into Darkness. And the struggle began.  
  
An Original Soul  
  
Chapter One  
  
The middle of summer is the worst time to have cold. The sweltering heat of late afternoon can make the sore throat ache just a little more and the house shaking sneezes all together exhausting. Most people just grin and bare and make due with plenty of rest, and lots of chicken soup, but then again most people have never used magic for anything and would never know they might not have to deal with such discomfort. Harry Potter is not one of these people or muggles as they are called in some circles. Harry Potter is a wizard.  
But there is no magical remedy at hand for Harry, he is still underage by wizarding law standards, not quite sixteen, when he wishes with all his might that he was a year older, and about to be seventeen and of age and able to wield magic as an adult. Of course making it to even sixteen had been a study in self-preservation.  
You see, Harry Potter is not only a wizard, but a famous one at that. When he just a toddler of one year of age, with the help of a charm his mother had cast on him and cemented with the sacrificing of her own life, Harry had defeated the terrible Dark Wizard Lord Voldemort. The Curse that erupted for Voldemort's wand had rebounded and ripped the serpent from his body causing him to become a shadow of himself and forced to hideaway from the world he had terrorized. So then his father dead from the duel protecting Harry and his mother dead from sacrificing herself for him, Harry was all alone, and forced to go live with the his muggle relatives the Dursely's.  
Harry didn't have anything against muggles, just because he was magical and they aren't doesn't mean he's any better. In fact Harry Potter had once been a muggle, or at least lived as one for the first eleven years of his life. It so happened that the Dursely's, them being his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Cousin Dudley, were the worst type of muggles. They knew of the Wizarding community that Harry was apart of, and absolutely positively despised it. The word magic wasn't even aloud to be uttered in there presence, not even in the house.  
He had been forced to live in a cupboard under the stairs for the first ten years of his life with the Dursely's, his only friends had been the spiders, and his wardrobe consisted of throw away's from his whale of a cousin Dudley's. When Harry now thinks back to those days, he can smile at the thought of how simple it had all been, sure he had been free labor, but life had no more to then simply that, life. Now looking back on the last five years, there was something new added to life, death.  
At the age of Eleven, Harry had received a curious letter, well several letters in fact, but what made these letters especially curious other than the facts that Harry never received post or that they had been delivered by owls, was where that came from. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry had never heard of Hogwarts, at the time he had no idea he was a Wizard, Dursely's had kept his former life from him, his parents were suppose to have died in a car crash, they were good for nothings.  
And yet it was true, Harry was a Wizard, and over the next few years he would come to learn the joy and terror of such a discovery. From finding his best friends Ron and Hermione to Quidditch(wizard sport played on brooms), fighting trolls, dragon's, and giant snakes, three headed dogs, and bludgers charmed to brake him. He would also both find family and lose it. All in a few short years.  
It was that last thought that broke Harry out of his revelry. "Sirius." he said under his breath. The tears had long dried up. The tears had been replaced by a hate so deep that it scared him to look into the depths of it. It was the hate, that had gotten him this far into the summer.  
Harry bit his lip, and swiped the glasses off his face. He rummaged in the waste bin to the left of his small bed, and found a half-clean napkin to wipe his lens clean. Reflected back at him was himself, Harry James Potter, the unruly black hair, bright green eyes, and the lightning shaped scar across the top of his brow. It was this scar that symbolized his hate. It was the constant reminder that he was the one. HE was the only one who could defeat the Dark Lord. Yes Voldemort was back, Harry had seen his return and even faced him again at the Ministry of Magic last year. Voldemort was the bane of his existence, the reason his parents were gone , the reason he had to live with his terrible relitives, the reason that Sirius his Godfather, had died. Everything in Harry's life had begun and ended with those red snake eyes, that flat nose, and the shill laugh of Tom Riddle, a misguided youth who fashioned him self into the most powerful Dark Wizard the world had ever known. And Harry hated him for it, and if he must, he would kill him, it had come to that now, he was the one.  
  
"Aahhhchooo" He would have to get over his cold first.  
  
----------------------------------------------  
  
"POTTER, GET OUT OF BED!"  
  
Harry groaned and rolled over. His Aunt Petunia had been at his door for five minutes, trying to get his attention for something he knew would irk him terribly.  
"Go away." he said. "Its too early for this."  
" It is not too early, I have to go out shopping and I will not have you sleeping all day while my windows go un-washed. NOW GET UP!"Aunt Petunia could screech as well as any owl Harry had known, and it was the thought of more of the same that made him slide out of bed and into a hunched sitting position."  
"Oh, and your uncle said one of your freaks has sent you a letter, the ruddey owl is at your window." And with that Harry heard her trek back towards the stairs at the end of the hall. It was funny how the Dursely's could convey information that was of interest to him, fraught with insults and it still barley made raise an eyebrow. Their insults this summer had seemed like mostly after thoughts. " Whatever." Harry thought, and raised himself out of bed and stumbled blindly towards the window. Raising the Pane his saw a large tawney sitting stoicly on the ledge, absently chewing on a worm.  
"Hello." said Harry. The owl eyed him appraisingly, much as his own Hedwig would and stuck out a talon with a letter attached. Harry immediately recognized the green writing of a Hogwarts letter.  
"Must be my OWL results." Harry thought, and promptly detached the letter and sent the school owl on its way with an owl treat for good measure.  
Harry grabbed his glasses off his night table next to his bed, and in the process send parchment and spellbooks crashing to the floor in his blind search. Finally placing them on, the world came into focus and the letter was torn open. It was from Dumbledore.  
  
Dear Harry,  
It is my hope that this letter finds you in good health and good company. Though we both know that the company is a little iffy. I know you might have been hoping for your owl results, but this letter is merely to warn you of a visit that will occur this afternoon. The man in question is an associate of mine for many years, since my youth in fact. He is going to give you some information that is of vital importance to your immediate future. I know you will have many questions for him about the such things in the wizarding world, but do not ask him, because he is not a Wizard, he is something else entirely. Do not fear him, but do not trust him completely either. Don't be alarmed , no harm will come to you, I swear.  
  
Albus Dumbledore  
  
Harry stared at the letter for a moment. Do not fear him, but do not trust him completely? " What the bloody hell does that mean?" Harry said it aloud to himself and when no answer came he tossed the letter on his bed. Dumbledore would never put him in danger intentionally.  
  
But he has failed you before. "Yes he has, but not on purpose."Harry thought, but he would carry his wand with him all the same. Barty Crouch had taught him that much.  
  
He pulled his wand out from under his bed and stuck it in his sock and pulled the bottom of his tattered jeans over it. Better to lose a foot then a buttock, Moody would probrably've said.  
  
-------------------------------------  
  
The day passed quickly, what with all the windows to be cleaned, and Harry found himself looking more and more at the clock. Noon had passed quietly and one and two in quick succession, and as three neared Aunt Petunia came home with the shopping, and Dudley left for his delinquent activities for the evening. It was then that the door bell rang. At least that was how Harry figured it happened, he was up in the attic crouched low trying to clean the cobwebs out of the corners of the windows when his Aunt popped the hatch open.  
"You have a visitor Harry." Was all she said and promptly left a gaping Harry starring after her.  
Harry? Did she say Harry? Not boy, not freak or potter or idiot or any of the other extremities that better described her titanic oaf of a son Duddeykins. Shaking his head out of shock, Harry dropped the webbed cloth he was using and swung himself out of the attic landing on his feet but nearly tripping over someone standing in his way. Strong hands shot out and helped right him properly on his feet. " 'ello, you are Harry Potter are you not?" The man standing before him seemed to be about middle age. He was tall at least half a foot taller then Harry. His face was a study in wrinkles in all the right places laugh lines etched the sides of his mouth that held a toothy grin and his black eyes were set under drastically bushy white eyebrows. He wore a black suit, fashionable enough for any astute banker, or even a drill salesmen as it were. " I am." said Harry. "Good, good." said the man and extended his hand in a welcoming way. "I am Visily Tolov. You know of my coming, do you not?"  
  
Harry took the hand and found it a friendly enough embrace. "You mean Dumbledore's letter?" " Yes Albus, I thought he might inform you of my coming."  
  
The Letter Harry thought Dumbledore said this man would be coming , an old friend he said, from.......from his youth? Dumbledore must be a hundred and fifty years old, the man in front of him couldn't have been any more then a third that. Damnit its not him!  
And without hesitation or remorse Harry took his fist and tried to bury it in the side of the man's brow. By the time the Tolov had hit the wall and crumpled on the floor Harry was already at the stairs.  
  
"AUNT PETUNIA GET OUT IT ISN'T SAFE, GO TO MRS. FIGGS." But Petunia didn't seem to hear him, she was staring at the wall in the entry way, muttering to herself. Harry took the stairs three at a time and grabbed his Aunt while wrenching the door open at the same time. " Go it isn't safe." He yelled again and still she didn't answer. He turned her to face him and she stared at him with an un-recognizing glare in her eye. "Go back to him Harry, it isn't what you think."It came out of her mouth, but it wasn't quite the voice he was use to, it wasn't hers. "Imperious curse." Harry thought and promptly threw her through the door and locked it in her face.  
He stooped and wrenched his wand out of his sock and spun back towards the stairs.  
"There vill be no need for that Harry James Potter." Harry's wand disappeared from his hand. 


	2. Primo Animus

Disclaimer: I Do not own any of the Harry Potter Characters, or any of the Situations from any of the HP books.  
  
An Original Soul  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Harry stared at his hand where his wand had been a moment before, and hated the sight of it. He had been tricked again. A simple letter from Dumbledore, and he had let an enemy into his house, the house where he was suppose to be protected.  
Willingly, he let the hate inside of him take control. It lapped at his skin like a flame, gently at first, and then it started to burn. Why had he been so foolish again? The last time he let his guard down.......well he knew what had happened last time, and he couldn't think of it at a moment like this.  
Harry looked back up at Tolov, who was staring at Harry thoughtfully as he dabbed at a wound next to his left eye with a Handkerchief, a cunning look in his eye, calculating.  
  
" I must say Mr. Potter, that vas a very good punch, I admit I was not expecting it."  
  
"Condescending bastard." thought Harry, and he let the hate ease further to the surface. If only he could focus it, use the hate to cut off the wind that fed this man's lungs. "Kill Him." he thought. " I can Kill him. And not even move."  
  
With that thought, from his place at the bottom of the stairs, Harry saw Tolov take a step back, even though he was some distance from Harry. Harry felt his face split into a sneer as Tolov's indifferent countenance changed to one of horror. The coloring of his skin pinked and he clutched one hand to his throat, as if he was hoping it wasn't true.  
Within a minute Tolov collapsed in a bundle at the top of the stairs, and Harry slowly started making his way up them one at a time, he was in no hurry. If he took his time this intruder might be dead before he even reached the last step.  
But as Tolov's Red face came into view, Harry felt a pull at the back of his head, and he felt his magical grip of Tolov's throat release. He was about to pounce on the prone man at his feet once more, but Tolov's coughing ended and he croaked out.  
  
"Somnus", Harry's world went dark.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"What is that sound?" Thought Harry. He opened one eye, and saw nothing but blue expanse, "the sky?"How had he gotten outside? Tolov!  
Harry quickly sat up and tried to jump to his feet, but found he could only manage a sitting position. Warily, he took in his surroundings. It appeared he was in the park on Magnolia Crescent, just a few blocks from Privet Dr. There were children playing at the swings nearby, were he had sat a year before, just before the Dementor attack, the attack that had almost caused him to be expelled for using underage wizardry. "Oh no!" Harry groaned, he had done it again, the ministry was sure to expel him this time, three times in five years he had done some sort of magic outside of school. This was not good.  
Of course his life had been in danger, he had been defending his home had he not. Maybe that would count for something this time!  
"They are at your house as we speak Harry." It was Tolov.  
Harry tried to rise to his feet once more, but found he was still unable. "Must be some sort of leg-locker curse." thought Harry and he craned his neck behind him to get a look at the older man.  
Visily Tolov was sitting on the park bench only a few feet away peeling an orange, just as any gentlemen might of relaxing on a July afternoon. He took a slice of orange and gestured with it toward Harry in offering, but Harry shook his head and continued to glare hatefully at the man. Tolov shrugged it off, and popped the slice into his own mouth, with apparent enjoyment, and sat thoughtfully for a moment.  
"I like oranges Harry." Tolov said, breaking the silence.  
  
"Good for you." Said Harry, using his best Malfoy drawl.  
  
"I always offer oranges to my friends, as well should you, marvelous fruit. Apples on the other hand......"Tolov sat for a moment more. " Apples can be something else entirely when offered." Tolov then took on a pensively blank stare.  
  
"You did well with me Harry."  
  
"I would have killed you if the spell hadn't of broke." spat Harry.  
  
"I should have known Albus would put you on your guard, I was not aware of how perceptive you were at the time. Interesting you picked up on the age discrepance so quickly, and startling how violent and swift the retaliation was." Tolov stopped speaking and lock eyes with Harry's own. " I hope we might not have a repeat episode?"  
An odd calm swept over Harry as he stared into the black eyes of the older man. It was as if Harry could suddenly feel the weight of that gaze, and the unmalicious intent of the owner. This man hadn't wanted to hurt him after all. And shame followed.  
  
"Im...." Started Harry.  
  
"No need to apologize Harry, it is....it is understandable, to say the least."Tolov said, waving off Harry's downcast look. "Now, we have some matters to discuss. Namely why it is you who must face the Dark one."  
Harry shot his face back up to Tolov's. "How do you know about that?"  
  
Once again Tolov waved him off. " Don't worry Harry, Albus did not need to tell me, I have known of the prophecy since before it came to be spoken."  
"But how?" said Harry, who found that he could now move his legs, and promptly pulled them under his frame and sat facing Tolov. "How could you know, only myself, Dumbledore, and.. and..."  
  
"Voldemort, Harry." said Tolov quietly. " Yes the Dark one also knows, though he does not know the extent of it, he knows it is you he must kill."  
  
Harry nodded and looked back down at the close cropped grass in front of him.  
  
They were both quiet for some minutes, when Tolov spoke again. "May I ask you some questions, Harry. They might seem a bit strange, but we'll see if we can't make since of them.OK?"  
  
Harry nodded again, confused, but intrigued.  
  
" Ok. Close your eyes."  
  
Harry stared warily at Tolov, but finally accented, and closed his eyes.  
  
"Good, now I want you to speak to yourself, just say anything that comes to mind, a simple hello even should do."  
  
"Hello." Harry said aloud to himself, feeling quite foolish doing so.  
  
"No, No, Harry you misunderstand me, do not speak aloud, think about having a conversation with only yourself. Ok, now try again and tell me what you hear."  
  
Hello, thought Harry, this is bloody stupid, Im an idiot for thinking this might somehow be important. Harry opened his eyes again.  
  
"Well?" said Tolov. "What do you hear?"  
  
"I don't know, just me I guess."  
  
" Is it your voice though?" said Tolov eagerly  
  
" Well yeah its my bloody voice I thought it didn't I, and I'm sure wizards frown on talking to yourself just as much as hearing voices, so I like to not get to deeply into it."said Harry losing his patience and lashing out at the smug smile that broke out on Tolov's face.  
  
"You have no idea how rare it is to have such sense of self that your very Soul speaks to you...do you?" said Tolov replacing the smug smile with a look that was fathoms deep.  
"My Soul?" said Harry.  
  
"Yes, Harry, your Soul is very special." said Tolov quietly. "Do you want to know what your cousin Dudley hears in his mind? All HE hears it the pulse that is issued in the front part of his brain that tells him when its time to eat, or some other such natural instinct, your Aunt and Uncle are the same. Most people never reflect on what it really is when they speak to themselves, to hear you own voice, instead of just thought, is very rare indeed, in fact at this time right now as we sit in this park, there are only five individuals on the planet that hear there own souls."  
"My Soul?" Harry whispered again. And he again felt the pull at the back of his head.  
  
"Do you remember Harry last year in Albus' office, he told you then that Voldemort who had just possessed you, couldn't stand to be in your body because of a specific power you had? Do you remember? What happened that night when Voldemort took hold of you, think, what happened?"  
  
Harry did think, it was painful to remember that night. Sirius, had disappeared beyond the veil, he was so close, but Lupin wouldn't let him go to him, he said he was gone. Even now Harry remembered the tears, and then the anger, the anger that had driven him to use an unforgivable curse, it hadn't worked, hadn't truly wanted it to work, but the hate took him.  
And then the duel with Dumbledore and Voldemort, the terrifically powerful spells the two wizards exchanged and then Voldemort vanishing, and Harry feeling him take his body from him. The terrible voice that escaped his mouth. And the pain, God the pain.  
  
Let me die, he had thought, I can see Sirius agian......  
  
Harry looked up to see Tolov smiling knowingly at him, that voice, it had been his own. And then Harry had another memory, one of being tied to a headstone as the thing that would become Voldemort sat at the bottom of a cauldron.  
  
Let it drown.......please let it drown.  
  
There he had heard the voice again. But it had been so clear , almost a shout in his own mind.  
  
"You see Harry, in times of great fear, the soul is most prominent."  
  
"Yes, I remember I heard it very clearly." whispered Harry. "But why is it that Voldemort couldn't stand to be inside of me, why did just my soul make him leave?"  
  
"Fear Harry, he fears you now more then ever, you are a Primo Animus."  
  
"A what?"  
  
"Primo Animus, it is the name the ancients gave to our kind, it means Original Soul."  
  
"Our kind?" asked Harry  
  
"Yes Harry, I am also of the Primo Animus. But that is what we are, it does not define us as individuals, we have specific names for that. The Ancients would have known you as the Santamoni Animus, or virtuous soul."  
"Virtuous, like a knight or something." Harry thought back to the story's of the Sir Gawain and various knights of the round table, that were said to have been virtuous.  
Tolov chuckled and shook his head. "They might have been virtuous, but they would never have understood the weight of the situation we speak of Harry. Yet you are Virtuous, you are brave and compassionate and just, much like the knights of old. But shouldn't there be another question, for everything there is an opposite, if you are the Santimoni Animus, may there not be another, one that isn't so Virtuous perhaps?" Tolov fixed Harry with that stare again, the one that looked beyond all time.  
"Voldemort?" Harry found himself saying.  
  
"He will be known to you as the Invisus Animus, the hateful soul."  
  
"Invisus Animus" Harry repeated, and he found the words bring an emotion to bear, it wasn't so much hate, as it was a desire to be rid of the words.  
  
"Yes." said Tolov "You already can feel the need to destroy him, its what you are for, it why you were born."  
  
"But why me?"  
  
Tolov sighed, and looked away from Harry for the first time in quite awhile. "That is a difficult question Harry, I'm probably not the best to answer it, I suggest you ask Albus."  
  
"Professor Dumbledore, but why?"  
  
"Can you not think why Harry? You have his Chocolate frog card do you not?"  
  
"Yes, about a dozen, but.....oh Grindewald?." Harry had forgotten, Dumbledore was known for his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindewald.  
  
"Eric Grindewald fifty years ago was a Invisus Animus. Albus was the..."  
  
"Santimoni Animus." finished Harry. "So its happened before?"  
  
"Yes Harry a thousand times. Think about it Caine and Abel, the Prophet Moses and the Egyptian Wizard Malcolm, Wellington and Napoleon. It goes on and on. You see there is a war going on and it has been for thousands of years and history is its battlefield, now it is your turn to play your part."  
  
Harry Potter was feeling sick, he needed air, "Oh God why me!" he thought to himself, this was going to make his life even more difficult then he could have imgained.  
  
Tolov stood from his place on the bench. "Now Harry it is time to arm you."  
  
"Arm me." said Harry  
"Yes now stand, I have brought a gift for you."  
  
Harry stood on his shaky legs, and felt as if he might spew all over the front of Tolov's starched suit.  
  
"Now Harry take your wand."  
  
"But I don't have it." said Harry who instinctively reached for his sock, were he promptly found his wand there as it should have been. He pulled it out, and stared at it for a moment before turning back to an impishly smiling Tolov.  
  
"Sorry, I thought you knew you had it all along." he said. "But anyway where were we, yes that's right, now face me, thats right now point your want at me and say "Magus Autem"  
  
Harry raised his wand to the heart of Visily Tolov, and said the words that would cement his life as the santimoni Animus.  
  
"Magus Autem"  
  
His world went dark for a second time that day, "Damn." he thought as he slipped into the unknown, "I hate when this happens." 


	3. Dumbledore and Ron

Chapter Three  
  
"Harry." The voice said. He blinked once, and the world came back into focus. Harry found himself standing on the doorstep of his relatives house. A moment of disoriented thought and then he realized he was standing in front of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore.  
"Harry." said the wizened wizard, placing a hand on Harry's elbow and supporting him. Harry for the life of him couldn't imagine how he had come to be there, standing in front of his professor, when a moment before he had be using a spell on Visily Tolov, in the park a few blocks away.  
"How did I get here?" he croaked out, his voice sounding disembodied in his own mind.  
  
"It isn't important right now Harry, come we must talk." The Headmaster, still holding on to his elbow, led Harry through the door, and started him up the stairs. Harry glanced into the sitting room to his left as he accented and saw all three Dursely's sitting side by side on the couch, blank expressions painted on there faces.  
  
"I had to subdue them, you can imagine their reaction to this afternoon's exploits." Harry cringed visibly and looked up at the old wizard. Dumbledore for his part was smiling down at Harry with a look of pure amusement. " Your uncle has quite the opinion of Wizards Harry, very colorful vocabulary."  
Harry could very well imagine what his uncle has said to Dumbledore.  
  
They came to the top of the stairs and Harry led them to his room where he closed the door behind them. Dumbledore seemed to take in Harry's room a bit reminiscently, smiling serenely at the clutter strewn across the floor. Harry felt himself redden at the mess.  
"Sorry Professor, I wasn't expecting company."  
  
"No need to worry Harry, I am quite aware of what it is to be sixteen, I myself was never the most organized young man." With that, the greatest wizard of the age promptly sat down on Harry's desk chair ignoring the pair of boxers that hung from the back of it.  
Harry sat likewise on his bed, steeling himself against the conversation that was about to take place.  
Dumbledore sat staring at the floor for a moment. "How did your encounter with Visily go?" he said looking up from the spot on the floor.  
  
"Rough at first." Harry said shifting in his seat. "But it explained a lot in the end."  
  
Dumbledore simply nodded.  
  
"Professor." Harry said "Is this how it happened to you. He came to you and told you about the Primo Animus."  
  
Dumbledore nodded again and looked as if that explained the matter, but then seemed to think it better to speak. "My seventh year at Hogwarts, Visily came to me over the holidays at Christmas. It had already been a confusing time in my life, but when he appeared, as you said it explained many questions." Dumbledore sighed and stood up and started pacing the length of Harry's small room. Harry could only look on.  
  
"I swear Harry." Dumbledore said, never breaking stride. " I had no idea, if I did, I would never have let you stay in the dark this long. It is my fault, I wanted to protect you and now I find that I have wasted five years that I had to prepare you." Dumbledore took another turn at his door and then stopped when he reached the window, staring up at the sky, that was already darkening into night. He stood a moment and seemed to gather himself, stiffening up to his considerable height. "I can only say that I wanted you to have as normal a life as was possible under the circumstances."  
  
"Its ok." Harry said. "We discussed this after..." at lump rose to the top of Harry's throat. "after the ministry and Sirius...." Harry stood and walked to the side of the Wizard, who at this angle, looked very old indeed. "I don't blame you Professor."  
  
Dumbledore turned and looked down at Harry. " I should have know though Harry, all the signs were there, I just.... I just couldn't believe it would happen again so soon. You have no Idea what being the Santimoni Animus entails."  
  
"Then teach me, I'll learn, I've already come to terms that I must kill Tom Riddle anyway, this is just one more reason." Harry's word reverberated in the quiet of the room, strength gathered around him and he felt...he felt....peace. It was comforting to say it out loud.  
  
A smile flashed across Dumbledore's face. "I know Harry, thats why I've come. After Visily came to see me this morning I started making arrangments for you to....deal with this matter."  
  
"Deal Sir?" asked Harry, swallowing the lump that was steadily grow in the back of his throat.  
  
"Yes dear boy, you must be prepared, in my own experience with primo animus, I had decades to prepare for my confrontation with Eric. You Harry, you most likely have only months, perhaps a year." Dumbledore straightened his withered frame. "It is time for us both to except that all is not well, you Harry, have never, and will never be a normal wizard...."  
  
"But Im just...." Started Harry, but Dumbledore held up his hand.  
  
"I know, you are just Harry Potter, and then you are not, you are the Santimoni Animus, a champion of virtue, of all that is good in this imperfect world. Upon your shoulders falls the responsibility of destroying the threat that lurks beyond the veil...." Dumbledore broke of his train of thought there and looked at Harry with sorrowful eyes.  
  
"The veil, like.....like Sirius...in the ministry." Harry heard himself speak but the words were barely a whisper he knew.  
"Yes Harry, like Sirius. Sirius, fell into shadow. Not so much a death, but an in between, neither dead nor alive, only....a nothing." Dumbledore reached out a hand and placed it on Harry's shoulder. "There is nothing that can be done for him, he is simply gone."  
  
Harry choked on the very large lump in his throat and let out a pained sob. He felt the hot tears prick his eyes and then roll down his cheeks. But through the pain, he felt the questions burning.  
"What is behind the veil, Professor." Harry gasped  
  
Dumbledore sighed and stared pensively at Harry for a long moment. "The ministry of magic has for sometime now, sought to understand the very nature of magic. Where it comes from, how it is so few can use it and so forth. So they have studied various possibilities, some of which in my own opinion verge on the Dark Arts, something I have never condoned. One of the experiments is that archway deep in the department of mysteries. Its acts as a doorway between this world and another, not the great beyond that is waiting for us all in death, more of a purgatory."  
Harry gasped again "Sirius!"  
  
"Yes Harry, I know. It is most distressing and I have since that night berated myself for allowing it to occur with in my sight,......especially since it has once again caused you pain."  
  
Dumbledore turned from Harry and made his way back towards the seat near the desk. "There is another matter that concerns that night." Dumbledore spoke as if selecting his words carefully. "Ronald Weasley had the misfortune to be introduced to a horrific material, something that should not be allowed within reach of anyone."  
  
"Ron?" Harry wiped a stray tear from his cheek. "but he's just fine, he was right after that night."  
  
"The brain Harry." the word brain seemed leave a sour taste in the old wizards mouth, like he had swallow a vomit flavored bean.  
  
"What about the brain, I mean it was disgusting and all, but he seemed alright."  
  
"That brain, or if you can call it that, came from something that you are regrettably very familiar with.....a Dementor."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Another one of the ministries so called experiments. Take the brain of a Dementor and study the remains of the souls it has devoured, hundreds of souls Harry, and each soul's most unfortunate memories, those same memories are now clinging to Mr. Weasley. Remember Poppy's warning?"  
  
"Some scars you can't see with your Eyes." Remembered Harry. At the time he had been so caught up in his own grief of his godfather, that he hadn't thought to question it. "So he can see, right, he can see all of their worst nightmares."  
  
"Yes, he can see them. Unless a solution is found, he will have them with him his entire life."  
  
Fresh tears threatened to leak. Harry rubbed angrily at his eyes with the back of his hands. So many people had been hurt or threatened in someway, all because of Tom Riddle.  
  
Cedric, Sirius, Ron now. Harry would make him pay for all of it....with interest."  
  
"What do I have to do."  
  
"Learn." Said Dumbledore simply. "With me. As I said before, it is pass the time to wish for normalcy. You will come with me now, and begin what will be the most difficult thing you can imagine. Once school begins, you may sleep and eat with the rest of your class, but your classes will be comprised of hours upon hours spent with this very old wizard."  
  
"So I wont be able to continue with my studies?" asked Harry.  
  
"No Im afraid not, not in the traditional since anyway."  
  
"What will I learn."  
  
"How to kill Voldemort."  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Ron Weasely sat staring at the chess board in front of him. Any number of moves jumped out at him, but he just sat and took every possible channel into consideration. He looked up at the person across from him. She to seemed entranced by the chess board, and Ron took the time to study her.  
Still the same wildly bushy hair, sharp intelligent brown eyes and pinked cheeks. All made beautiful by that brilliant smile plastered on her face as she sat staring at him.  
  
"Wait." Thought Ron. "She's caught me looking at her again. Oh God." Ron averted his eyes back to the game at hand.  
  
"When are you going to make your move?"  
  
Ron choked on the air he had just taken into his lungs. "What!?!" he looked up from the board once again, startled. Hermione sat with the same brilliant smile looking at him expectantly.  
"I er...well...um"  
  
"The game Ron. You know? Chess?" Hermione said, her smile never wavering.  
  
"Right, Chess." Ron focused once more on the black pieces in front of him. He knew his face was red, but he didn't care, it was almost always red lately.  
  
It had been this way for the past few days. Ever since Hermione had arrived by floo. Where last year her remarks toward him had been biting and short, the weeks before her arrival had changed her attitude towards him into something far more horrifying then her usual bossy self.  
Flirtatious Hermione was far more frightening then a thousand You- know-who's.  
  
Yes it was terrible. She had taken to embarrassing him at every opportunity presented. Even now as she stared at her white pieces scattered about the board she was doing it. Biting her lip in concentration, sighing and looking at him with those big doe eyes.  
  
"Oh bloody hell?" Thought Ron, "that lip biting is going to be the end of me."....... at least he thought he only said that in his head.  
  
"Don't swear Ron." said Hermione, feigning a stern expression. "And what's this about lip biting?"she then took on that new Hermione look, the crooked grin and narrowed eyes. "It sounds rather interesting."  
  
Ron could only gape fish-like at her. Had she just propositioned him. No, it couldn't be, Hermione would never do anything so...so..well so un- Hermione. And yet she still had that gleam in her eye, sitting there obviously trying to stare at him seductively. "Why was she doing this?" he thought, and he liked the question so much he said it aloud.  
  
"Why are you doing this 'Mione?"  
  
"Doing what, Ronald?"  
  
"Acting so.... well, I don't know, you tell me your doing it." Ron tried to not sound defensive, but he could tell by the look that appeared on her face, that Hermione had caught it anyway.  
  
"You don't like it." She said, taking her eyes off of him and settling on some spot on the table in front of them.  
  
"I didn't say that." Ron said quickly, he didn't want to be misunderstood, he just wanted to clarify what was going on. "It's just your acting more like, well I don't know." That was a lie he knew exactly the way she was acting. "Like you would toward a.....bloke you, you know."  
  
"That I fancy?" said Hermione calmly. "Or a boyfriend for that matter?"  
"BOYFRIEND?!?"screeched Ron, leaping out of his chair and upsetting the forgotten chess match, sending pieces to the floor where they grumbled and tried to right themselves.  
  
Hermione merely sat calmly in her seat and looked up at him, chin raised and proud just the way he liked her. "Yes a boyfriend, good lord Ron, it's been obvious for ages."  
  
"What's been obvious?" said Ron, who had discovered he had a nervous tick right next to his eye.  
  
Hermione, showing greater patience then Ron had ever seen her manage merely elaborated as though stating the most obvious thing in the world. "Well it's been very plain to me that we've been an item for quite sometime, we just haven't voiced our decision to be exclusive out loud."  
Ron felt his face screw up in confusion, "Oh, but, since when?"  
  
Hermione, her patience wearing then, rolled her eyes, and continued. " Well since fourth year, the fight remember? You made your intentions very clear."  
  
"I did?"  
  
"Uh-huh. So?" she said looking expectant again. "Aren't you going to kiss me?"  
  
"Uh....?"  
  
Rolling her eyes again Hermione got up from her seat and walked around the table, pulled him up by his shirt and planted her lips full on his mouth.  
  
Ron stiffened slightly in shock But as the kiss intensified he relaxed and closed his eyes, letting the bliss float over him like warm water. It was awkward, it was wet, and it was bloody wonderful.  
  
He felt Hermione break away and Ron opened his eyes to look into her's.  
  
"Ron!" she screeched "What was that for?"  
  
"What do you mean, what......" but Ron noticed something. The dim light that had engulfed the sitting room, was now replaced with a lighter glow of morning. Something else seemed wrong too. He wasn't standing, he was lying down.  
  
"Wait a minute." he thought, and as the rest of the room came into focus, he realized he wasn't in the sitting room, he was in his bed. "Uh, oh." He looked back at Hermione, who had slowly back away from him, red faced, hand clutched over her mouth in horror.  
  
"Hermione...I...um...what happened." He didn't know what else to say, it was obvious he had been dreaming and somehow in his sleep had really kissed the girl he had been kissing in his dream.  
  
"I came in to wake you and tell you we've received a letter from Dumbledore about Harry. You were mumbling in you sleep, and when I pulled the covers off of you to try and get you out of bed....you just grabbed me and kissed me." she said all this never taking her hand away from her mouth.  
  
Cold dread flooded into Ron's blood, "Oh Merlin. I never wanted her to find out this way."he thought.  
  
"What were you dreaming about." She said, her eyes still wide as saucers, her face red as a tomato.  
  
"Well..you see...its, complicated." Ron knew he was a coward "just tell her, he thought" but he knew he couldn't, not now having thoroughly made an ass of himself.  
  
"Oh. Well just.....you know...warn me next time." Hermione said, her face taking on a renewed redness.  
  
"Next time, huh." thought Ron grinning like a maniac. "I will. I promise. So." he said, thinking it was better to play nonchalant. "We've received word of Harry have we?"  
  
"Yes, your mother has the letter now, I just thought you'd like to know." Hermione said and turned towards the door to leave, face still red.  
  
Ron was about to let her leave without another word, but thought he'd see how far he could take this little 'misfortune', "Oh, 'Mione."  
  
"Yes, Ronald."  
  
"How was it?"  
  
Her mouth opened slightly in shock, but then gained control of herself.  
  
"It was lovely." With that she practically fled from his room, face so red she was purple.  
  
Ron flung himself back on his bed. "I made Hermione blush."  
  
"Point to you Ron."  
  
From down stairs he could have sworn he heard girls squealing. 


	4. The Marked Man

Chapter Four  
  
Harry Potter stood in front of the stone Gargoyle that led to Dumbledore's office. "Here we go again." he thought. And spoke the password that gave him entrance. "Bloodpop." thinking as he walked up the steps how his mentor had a strange fixation for exotic sweets.  
This had been the routine for nearly two weeks. Every morning he would wake in the familiarity of his dorm room in the Gryffindor tower, dress, and trudge the ten minute walk to Dumbledore's office, where the day would proceed with into unknown magical territory, laying open the expanse of known artistry of wizardry.  
Harry had always heard that Albus Dumbledore was the greatest wizard in an age, but to see it first hand was something entirely different. He was an artist, a genius with a wand, for lack of a better term a magician, even among magicians, something that Harry thought he would never be, and that Dumbledore assured him he would.  
He reached the wooden door , and pulling the brass latch. The door opened with a creak, and Harry slipped inside.  
  
"Good morning Harry, I trust you are well rested today." said a smiling Dumbledore from behind his desk.  
  
"Yes, Professor."  
  
"Good, Good."Dumbledore said as he rose from his plush seat and moved around the desk to stand in front of Harry. "Have you received word from you friends yet."  
  
"No, Sir, but I should think I'll have a reply any day now." Harry had sent a letter to the Weasley household two days ago, he knew Hermione was staying there, and since his new schedule didn't permit much time for writing letters he had just sent one addressed to all.  
  
"Excellent, now, may I please have your wand." said Dumbledore holding out his hand.  
  
Harry pulled his wand from his school robe and placed it in his Professor's out stretched hand.  
  
The old wizard studied the wand for a moment, smiling to himself in a mystifying way, and then placed the wand on the desk behind him. Turning back to Harry he pulled out his own wand, and with a flick, a large cauldron appeared in the middle of the floor between them.  
  
"Harry, you are aware of the difficulties you might face in a duel with Voldemort." Dumbledore said, eyeing Harry appraisingly. "You cannot use your wand on him."  
  
"Yes." said Harry. Voldemort's wand and Harry's shared the same core, which rendered them useless against the other.  
Dumbledore eyed Harry a little longer, blue eyes met green, and Harry felt a pull at the back of his head.  
"How was it you were able to nearly kill Visily, simply by willing it to be so?"  
  
Harry stared at the floor below him. He and Dumbledore hadn't discussed this part of his meeting with Tolov, and he thought he wouldn't have to.  
"I don't know, I just was so angry and frightened, I wanted to hurt him, to...."  
  
"To Kill him, yes Harry, its alright, nothing to be ashamed of, you were only trying to protect yourself." Dumbledore walked around the cauldron and stood in front of Harry.  
  
"You realize Harry, that it isn't possible to simply wish someone dead, and have it happen. That is it shouldn't be possible for most of us that practice magic."  
  
"I guess, I mean, I just wanted to kill him and I didn't have my wand, so I willed his throat to close." Harry realized now that he felt quite shameful for how easy it had been for him to decide to take that man's life, and he would have if he hadn't been stopped.  
  
Dumbledore nodded knowingly, and gestured to the large black cauldron in front of them. "Lift it, Harry."  
  
Not having a wand, Harry started forward to take the cauldron in his hands, but Dumbledore stopped him. " No Harry, do not lift it like that, simply will it to rise, only a foot or so mind you."  
Harry looked up at Dumbledore, and then back at the cauldron. Will it to rise?  
"But Professor, how can I without my wand?"  
  
"Just like with Visily Harry, just will it to rise off the floor."  
  
Harry shrugged and turned back to the cauldron. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember what it was he had done before.  
"Picture the cauldron in you mind Harry." Dumbledore said, whispering next to him.  
  
Harry conjured up the image of the large cast iron kettle in his head, it felt heavy just picturing it. He stared at the specter of the bowl in his mind until he felt himself relax.  
  
"Rise." he thought.  
  
He remained with his eyes closed for a moment more, but he couldn't resist a peek. So he cracked one eye open, and then the other, when he saw the cauldron sitting firmly on the ground in front of him. Harry frowned at the cauldron and then looked up and frowned at the wizard next to him.  
"Interesting." said Dumbledore, still looking at the cauldron that most defiantly had not left the ground.  
  
"Step back a pace or two will you Harry." said Dumbledore still staring at the complacent cauldron.  
  
Harry took a step back and was about to make a comment on how ridiculous he felt, when Dumbledore with a flick of his wand lifted the cauldron off the ground, and then with another, sent the metal bowl hurtling in Harry's direction.  
Frozen in place with nowhere to go, Harry lifted up his arms to cover his face, thinking as he was doing it how feeble a defense it was, and at the same time how crazy Dumbledore was for doing it to him. But also came another thought.  
  
"No." said Harry reaching out with his left hand, and with it the desire to not be flattened by the very heavy looking cauldron.  
  
At once Harry was lifted off his feet, and sent flying back against the wall behind him, which he hit with a crash that he was sure would be the end of him. He felt himself slide down the wall and slump against the floor, but thankfully he wasn't knock senseless and found he could open his eyes after a mere second.  
He saw Dumbledore standing in what appeared to be the same spot he had occupied before, with an annoyingly smug smile on his face. Harry then noticed that Dumbledore's desk had been turned over and the papers that had littered it were now slowly floating down from the ceiling and landing amongst smouldering pieces of something unidentifiable.  
  
"What happened?" asked Harry.  
  
"You stopped it. A bit more enthusiastically then I would have liked, but stopped it none the less."  
  
Harry stood shakily from his spot on the floor and walked to one the smoking pieces of something and nudged it with his foot. It appeared to be a very melted and very disfigured piece of cauldron.  
"It exploded?" said Harry astonished.  
  
"Yes!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because you wished it not to hit you and the magic acted according to its most viable option, unfortunately, you were rather tardy with your request so there were some side effects. Namely your abrupt encounter with the wall." Dumbledore said this, all the while smiling happily as if it was an occasion for celebration.  
  
"You threw it at me." said Harry frowning  
  
"You needed a reason to react and you had to let the magic work on its own." Dumbledore, with a wave of his wand cleared the room of the cauldron debris and righted his turned over desk. With another wave he conjured two cushy looking chairs and motioned Harry to sit.  
  
"Visily gave you a gift remember."  
  
"Yes." said Harry. "He said he needed to arm me."  
  
Dumbledore nodded and folded his hands in front of him. " It wasn't so much a weapon Harry, it was more a completion of what you already were. You had already proven yourself a very powerful wizard."  
  
"But I'm not, I mean, I can't do a tenth the spells you can Sir, or Voldemort for that matter." said Harry squirming in his seat.  
  
"That might be true of Voldemort Harry, Tom Riddle was always very studious in his acquisition of little known spells and curses. More so then even Miss Granger." Dumbledore's mouth twitched at that last part. "Tell me Harry, how many spells have I used today."  
  
"Well." said Harry, trying to recall all the times he saw Dumbledore use his wand. "You conjured the cauldron, and then sent it flying at my head." Harry said shooting a frown at the smiling old wizard. "And then you cleaned it up."  
  
Dumbledore continued to smile and nodded at everyone of Harry's recollections' "Yes you saw me brandish my wand, but how many spells Harry?"  
  
Harry felt his face wrinkle in confusion.  
  
"None, Harry." said Dumbledore. "Not one spell. And you will find that I have not used a spell in the last one hundred thirty three years."  
  
"What? But How." said Harry  
  
Dumbledore took out his wand and twirled it in his fingers smiling at it fondly. " You see Harry, I don't need this. I just like the way it feels in my hand, a bit silly really, but it's been a part of me for so long, I just cant seem to bring myself to do magic without it."  
  
Harry gaped at his mentor, he had never heard of a wizard doing magic without a wand, of course some could do accidental magic, like he had to his Aunt Marge in third year. But to be able do everything that Albus Dumbledore had done in his life, would take a Wizard of unbelievable power. It simply shouldn't be possible.  
  
"You don't need yours now either Harry."  
  
Harry's head snapped up so sharply he was sure someone would have heard the crack outside in the corridor.  
"That's right Harry." said Dumbledore smiling at him fondly, " You see, Visily gave you the keys to the Kingdom, in a manner of speaking. The ability to simply DO magic. No spells, no wand, just magic."  
  
Harry felt his throat constrict. Oh god. He was sure he had paled considerably.  
  
"It is Harry." said Dumbledore, taking on a more serious look. " A very large resonsiblilty. In my youth, if not for the help of someone to control my magic, I might have blown myself up, very quickly."  
  
"Someone helped you?" said Harry "Like your helping me."  
  
"Yes." said Dumbledore.  
  
"Who?" as soon as the word left his mouth, he somehow knew he wouldn't get an answer.  
  
Dumbledore broke into an all out smile this time. "That Harry. Is for another place and another time."  
  
Something about the smile told more then Harry would have thought. "It was a woman?"  
  
Dumbledore's smile grew wider. "Did you think I was always the old boring Headmaster Harry?"  
Harry felt his face flush, thinking of the Headmaster, as anything other that just that, he had to admit was hard to imagine.  
  
"Anyway." said Dumbledore, breaking Harry out of his revelry. " You must be careful as we continue in your studies, in a matter of weeks you will begin to harness the magic and you will find that many things will be possible, some wonderful, some mundane, and some very dangerous." Dumbledore eyed Harry for a moment. "Harry, I must ask you to try and hold yourself in check, if you were to become angry, you might hurt someone."  
  
"I know." said Harry, and felt that he did.  
  
"No Harry." Dumbledore let out a sigh. " You have been given the ability to wield magic on a scale that most cannot fathom. If you were to become angry at someone, and say half heartily wished them ill, even death. You are capable of doing it."  
  
"You mean, I could just wish them death."  
  
Dumbledore only nodded.  
  
"Can I do that to Voldemort."  
  
"Unfortunately Harry, he is much to powerful for that, he wouldn't allow it."  
  
They sat in silence for a few moments, both Harry felt, feeling the weight of what he must do.  
  
Finally Dumbledore spoke up. "Thats all for today Harry, Im sure you have some letters to write."  
"Are you sure." Harry had been use to working many more hours, but he realized now that the previous two weeks, when they had simply been doing various spells and potions , it was only his sixth year material. Dumbledore just wanted some more time to think how to broach the situation.  
"Yes Harry, quite."  
  
Harry rose from his chair and turned to leave.  
  
"And Harry."  
  
"Yes." said Harry turning back around.  
  
"Happy Birthday." said Dumbledore, as he tossed Harry's forgotten wand across the room to him.  
Catching it deftly in his hand, he felt it for a moment. The smooth grain, and worn handle. Maybe he would never do magic without it either.  
  
Harry quickly left the Headmaster's offices, lost in his thoughts, entranced by the rhythmic clicking of his footsteps along the stone corridor.  
  
What did Dumbledore mean, he could just DO magic. No wand, No spells. It set him thinking about what magic was. If it wasn't stored in his wand, and it was in the words used to accomplish it? What was it? Energy, maybe? Hmmm, maybe he should ask Hermione.  
  
"Greetings Potter."  
  
Harry spun on his heel, somehow in the middle of reverie, he had walked right past his insufferable, greasy haired potions master. Severus Snape.  
  
"Professor." Harry said cooly.  
  
"Interesting meeting you here Potter, I was just thinking about you, and how much I miss our encounters of the school term, during the summer." Sneered Snape, looking the very part of the hated teacher he is.  
  
"No doubt longing for my return and the parade of house points you will remove." Harry said with a sneer of his own. He wanted to remind the git that they were mostly unwarranted, but Harry had neither the inclination nor the energy to deal with a moody Snape. It was his birthday, he was to have a lessons free afternoon, and he really just hated to be in the presence of the man.  
  
Harry was about to continue on his way to Gryffindor tower, when Snape spoke up.  
  
"He knows, Potter, he knows what you are."  
  
Harry in mid-turn stopped. "Does he, Professor?"  
  
"He summoned his followers last night." Snape said, rubbing his forearm. " apparently he was warned in someway."  
  
"And what diabolical plan is he cooking up this time, Snape. It's getting rather comical you know, his lack of execution. Can't even kill a baby, let alone a much older, much angrier me." Harry stared into the black eyes of his Professors, trying to keep an even temperament, Dumbledore's words of caution still ringing in his ears.  
  
"The Dark Lord is not to be tampered with you silly boy." snarled Snape.  
  
"Tom Riddle is a fool, Snape. Sickening in his absurdity."  
  
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" Shrieked Snape.  
  
"I will, he's nothing more then a wizard, like you or I. More like myself, considering his half-blood."  
  
Snape paled at Harry words.  
  
"H- H- Half-Blood?"  
  
Harry snorted. "You didn't know that the poster child for supreme purity, could never in this life time truly make such a claim? Yes Tom Riddle is the son of a witch with a muggle for a father."  
  
Snape still looking dazed, mouth open, took his eyes off Harry and cast a look around, seeming to search for something. "I didn't know." said Snape who had taken to rubbing his forearm again.  
  
"Most don't." said Harry smugly. He watched Snape's hand as it traveled over the spot where the Dark Mark, the symbol of Voldemort and his followers, was burned into the wizards arm. Then before he knew what he was doing he reached out and pulled the sleeve of Snape's robe back reveling the hated thing.  
  
Snape still to shocked, let him.  
  
A ghastly snake intertwined with the skull of a human, seethed and twisted on the pale skin of Severus Snape, it was a constant reminder of his transgressions toward his fellow wizard.  
  
Upon seeing it, a hate so deep it could only be described as bottomless reared in the center of Harry's body. Involuntarily his grasped the forearm of his teacher. The air in the quiet corridor thickened as the molecules became charged with magic.  
  
Snape let out a howl and dropped to his knees, his arm still clutched in Harry's grasp.  
  
" I know your there Tom, I can feel you." rasped Harry, who for his part, did not feel very in control of his actions.  
  
Snape let out another scream, as the animated snake on his arm writhed under Harry's grasp.  
"Yes, your always watching me, always calculating." Harry said trying to figure out were the words were coming from, he knew it was himself, but not, like he was repeating someone else's words.  
Harry saw sweat break over snape's brow, his eyes unfocused, dilating drastically.  
  
"Harry Potter." came an unearthly voice from Snape's mouth, unmistakably Lord Voldemort.  
  
"Riddle." spat Harry.  
  
"It appears." said the voice. "That I underestimated the need to be rid of you. I thought I would kill you for simple pleasure, but it appears your death will be much much more satisfying."  
  
Harry felt his face contort with rage. "My death Tom Riddle? My death? You are more of a fool then all those before you." Harry clenched the Dark Mark with increasing force, trying to squeeze the magic from it. "I will no longer be the hunted, you have no hold on me. I am far more then anything you could possibly grasp. Your death is my responsibility, one I have come to relish with every passing moment."  
  
Snape's broke into a smirk. "Imagine that, the Golden Boy of the Wizarding World, threatening a fellow man with death, what would Dumbledore say Potter? I thought the Light didn't condone the use of unforgivable's, assuming you would want to destroy myself using the curse I killed you foolish parent's with."  
  
"On a fellow man maybe Tom. But you stopped being Human long before I was born."  
  
Snape's face lowered to a grimace. "My patience runs thin Potter, you would do well to let me kill you without a fight, or else I might have to resort to further methods of pain."  
  
"I have no doubt you will anyway. So on that note I leave you, but Im taking Snape with me." With that Harry turned the Potion masters arm to face the floor, where the magical contract he bore to Tom Riddle dripped like water on to the stone, it pooled and writhed with malice, thick like blood, but grudgingly disappeared without a trace.  
  
Harry released the arm, and Snape promptly collapsed on the floor in a heap of robes.  
  
Harry stood breathing rapidly, his control coming back to him. He looked down at Snape, passed out at his feet, his pale, newly bare arm, sticking out for all the world to see. He bent down on one knee, and place a hand on Snape's neck. The pulse was strong, so at least he wasn't dead.  
  
"Professor." Harry said , shaking the bundle of robes slightly. "Professor." he said again a bit louder.  
  
"MMMm."moaned Snape. Rocking his head from side to side. He moaned again, and then Harry saw him crack one eye open. Quicker then Harry would have thought possible for a man just coming back to wakefulness, he sat up, staring wide eyed at Harry.  
  
"No." he said, and to Harry's surprise and to his slight dismay, he sobbed.  
  
"NO. STAY AWAY, STAY AWAY." Snape screamed pushing his way to the wall still on his back side, away from Harry.  
  
"It's alright Professor." Harry said reaching out a hand to try and help the sobbing man up.  
Snape batted the hand away and cringed at the touch. Then with a wild look in his eyes, he leaped up, and tore down the corridor, screaming all the way. "HEADMASTER, HEADMASTER, HELP ME." leaving a bewildered Harry in his wake. 


End file.
